Patriots could owe Aaron Hernandez’s family millions

Patriots could owe Aaron Hernandez’s family millions

The New England Patriots could owe millions of dollars to Aaron Hernandez’s family after his suicide.

According to CBS Boston, there is a $3.5 million salary bonus that was never given to Hernandez because of his arrest in 2013 on murder charges. However, because there is the likelihood that the murder conviction will be overturned, according to lawyer William Kennedy, the Patriots could be on the hook to pay that bonus to Hernandez’s estate.

The possibility of the conviction being vacated stems from a Massachusetts law that states that because the appeals process was never completed before his death, the conviction could be tossed.

“At the time of his original arrest in the Odin Lloyd case, my understanding was that there was a $3.5 million bonus that we’ve made a subject of an action in the Superior Court,” Kennedy said. “We got a commitment from the Patriots that before any of that payment would be made they would notify the court to give us a chance to deal with that.”

Hernandez was acquitted of the murders of Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu last week, and Kennedy represents the family of both Furtado and de Abreu in filing a joint wrongful death lawsuit.